A Story of Food, Love, and Compromise

Secret Single Behavior and Brussels Sprout Quinoa Gratin

One of my favorite Sex and the City episodes discusses secret single behavior, which is something that both men and women can probably relate to. After Carrie moves in with Aidan she talks with her friends about the loss of her alone time, aka the loss of time for her secret single behaviors, such as standing in the kitchen reading fashion magazines while eating a tower of saltines with grape jelly.

I’m fortunate that my relationship has never involved much humility. We both realize how ridiculous the other one is, so nothing surprises us too much. At the same time, I do notice my behavior shift a bit when he’s out of town. Since we’re currently right smack dab in the middle of prime deer hunting season, the past few weeks have brought on a lot of secret single behavior opportunities.

Like when I dramatically belt out Taylor Swift songs at the top of my lungs while in the shower. Or when I sit in my underwear and watch cooking shows while eating stale toast. Or when I get out some Christmas trinkets for a few hours just to see how it feels (hint: it feels AMAZING).

These are all hypothetical examples. Totally.

A single behavior that’s NOT so secret? Pretty much every day when the boy’s away I eat a super weird experimental meal. Sure, we experiment when we cook together, but when he’s gone our kitchen transforms into a scientific laboratory where meat-lovers go to die. It’s all about things like tofu, quinoa, kasha, barley, and embracing the green and leafy.

More often than not these experiments highlight the only thing I have found that the boy will absolutely not eat. Brussels sprouts are known to polarize the general population, but our home is especially divided. I love them, LOVE them. They’re just so darn cute, with their little baby cabbage form, and then there’s that fun texture, and don’t even get me started on the endless options for preparation…what’s not to love!?

On the other side of the brussels sprout spectrum stands the boy, who says they taste like dirt and sulfur. When we started dating I was all, “I’ll make brussels sprouts for you and I’ll change your mind, you just wait and see!” Welp, I made them for him, and he kindly ate one, but it did not go well. I’m happy we made it past that blip of a date.

Last weekend I decided to expand my brussels sprout horizon with a gratin of sorts. Since I wanted something substantial to have for my weekday lunches, I decided to add quinoa to the mix and bake it all together in a sort of mac and cheese brussels sprout gratin type thing. Ya dig?

The cheese sauce for this recipe is very similar to my Double Tomato Pepperjack Macaroni Bake. It’s a super easy sauce that starts with a roux and lends itself well to experimentation with different cheeses and spices, so play away.

The brussels sprouts are cooked just enough so they still have a bit of a bite to them. I love the textural combination of the sprouts mixed with the quinoa and smooth sauce. The parmesan and crispy bread crumbs on top are just extra credit, really.

Brussels Sprout Quinoa Gratin

1 pound brussels sprouts (~3 cups roughly chopped)

2 cups cooked quinoa

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups low-fat milk

1 cup gruyere, shredded

1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

2 teaspoons dried parsely

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons garlic

2 slices bread, processed into crumbs

Process

Preheat oven to 350-degrees

Chop the brussels sprouts – and I mean really get in there and chop so they’re almost diced, cause no one likes biting into an under-cooked brussels sprout. Imagine if you cut a brussels sprout in half, then in half again, then in half two or three more times. You’ll probably end up with about three cups of chopped sprouts.

Toss 2 cups of the sprouts with the quinoa, thyme, and parsley.

Melt the butter over medium heat, then whisk in the flour. Pour the milk into the saucepan and whisk constantly for 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens. If you’re wondering whether it’s thick enough or not, check if you can see the bottom of the pan as you whisk. If you can? Boom, onward.

Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the gruyere, goat cheese, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Stir into the quinoa/sprout mixture.

Heat the olive oil over medium heat, then add the garlic until it is fragrant. Stir in the breadcrumbs, and cook for 2-3 minutes until slightly browned and crisp.

Pour the quinoa/sprout mixture into an 8×8-inch dish, then top with the brussels sprouts, parmesan, and breadcrumbs.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before cutting in.

Another secret single behavior? Eating this gratin right out of the pan. I ate lunch at 2:00 on Sunday, then I cut a piece of the gratin for photographs around 3:00. It was so cheesy, creamy and dreamy, I just kept lifting up the fork for pictures and finding the bites disappear into my belly. This, my friends, is what secret single behavior is all about.

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What an interesting recipe. I’ve pinned it for the next time my Mr. is away. I can get him to eat his veggies, including Brussels sprouts, but the grains are a tougher sell. My meals alone tend to be meat free whereas he would look at this and assume it was a side dish. 🙂

You’ll have to let me know what you think! You could always leave out the quinoa, cut down the cheese sauce, and just make a straightforward gratin – then it really would be a side dish, and maybe you and your Mr. could both enjoy 🙂